Our judges, Marin, Noel and Ava, announced the winner of the Out of this World Award for best planet. They came up with the criteria:

Happy Planet Hosts,

Creative Decorations and/or Activities,

Themed Decorations and/or Activities and

Overall Attraction of the Display

After visiting each planet, they gave the award to the Lilac Academy for Bright and Curious Girls for their display at Saturn.

Hazel and Ila, and parents Matt and Sarah, did a terrific job. They had a brightly-lit booth, information about their planet and about women in space, and even LED-lit hula hoops for Saturn's rings. They also lit the path of the Solstice Lantern Walk with luminarias - for at least 500 feet!

Friends of Galileo presented them with a planesphere and a red LED flashlight to help them continue their astronomical explorations.

We also had a number of online votes. Our judges gave the People's Choice Award to the Girl Scouts of Western Washington for their display at Venus. Venus definitely had the longest lines of interested people. Well done!

And we were pleased to have so many of our planet sponsors present at the meeting.

Mark Thorson spoke on "Limiting Magnitude," that is, how we calculate the relative brightness of stars. The system we still use today has its origins with the Greek astronomer Hipparchus - over 2,000 years ago!

Future events

June 21, Solstice Picnic and Star Party. This will be a fun event on its own, and it will be the first planning meeting for our 2nd Solstice Lantern Walk in December. Location and other details to follow.